Monday, January 21, 2013

"Re-plant This in Our Handbooks": A Look at the Modern Day Hip Hop Rendition of MLK's "I Have a Dream"

"Go inside, climb a pyramid's incline
I see the promised land planned in Martin Luther's mind"
- Kevlaar 7, "Up There Beyond"

[In early 2011, Kevlaar 7 of the Detroit-based crew The Wisemen released his first album, an EP entitled Who Got the Camera? The revolutionary, scathing social and political material was perfectly in tune with the aura of dissent that was springing forth at that time. Reflecting on this intensely meaningful piece of music, I wrote what I believe are some of my bestpieces ever. The following essay is a close analysis of the record's single, "I Have a Dream", originally published on a now defunct blog exactly two years ago and reproduced here in a re-edited format.]

"I Have a Dream" was the first song released from Who Got the Camera? As Kevlaar 7 described it,
"this is the great Dr. Martin Luther King's famous speech, 'I have a
dream' in hip hop form, our version" and fittingly it was released on
Martin Luther King Day.

As the sixth track on the album, it's revealing to consider that the number 6 in the Supreme Mathematics represents "Equality", that principle which the venerable
Dr. King was so vehemently and passionately striving for. Equality
between all of "God's children," a recurring phrase in King's speech,
and we hear this same phrase echoed in Kevlaar's lyrics. The
song contains many metaphors and images from the original speech, even produced in the same chronological format as King's paragraphs. This essay will
dig thoroughly into the lyrics and shed light on the references to Dr.
King's speech and what it means for today. Through this process we will evaluate the song's
overall vision and intention as a modern musical version of King's legendary address.Who Got the Camera? by Kevlaar 7
The sampled voice begins with an emotional cry over blaring horns:

Voice: "I have a dream that touched me deep down inside..."

Kevlaar 7: We all dream...we all have dreams, yes...

"Oh yes I did....Oh!"

Kevlaar: You got the courage?

"I said I'm gonna tell the whole world about it..."

I'm gonna tell the whole world, I'm tellin you right now...

"I dreamed..."
Follow me...

In the shadows we all stand, still seared by the flames

Jobs at minimum wage, they say we prosper as slaves

The
first lines of King's speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington on August 23, 1963, point to the "symbolic shadow" of the man
(Lincoln) who signed the Emancipation Proclamation exactly a hundred
years prior (King says "five score years ago," a score being a period of
twenty years). The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order
issued by President Lincoln during the Civil War that freed (most of)
the slaves in the south at that time and in his next sentence, Dr. King
refers to the "millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering justice."

The
first line of the song uses the same imagery. The shadows in which "we
all stand" here refer to a couple of things though. Just like Dr. King
begins by paying homage to Lincoln, Kevlaar begins by acknowledging the
shadow of Dr. King. A giant historical figure and world-changer, we
stand in Dr. King's shadow; "we" as human beings, but also "we" as in
the black community which Kevlaar then refers to as being STILL "seared
by the flames" of which King spoke. Officially, nowadays there is no
longer slavery in this country but people have intangibly been enslaved
by the chains of mass mind control, poor housing & schools and
especially the effects of what is sometimes referred to as the "New Jim Crow Law"---that
is, the mass incarceration of black men and women (and the felon's subsequent
forfeit of many rights). Dr. King speaks of the "manacles of segregation
and the chains of racial discrimination."

These chains have
still kept the majority of black people stuck in "jobs at minimum wage"
even now. "The Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty," King observes
as well as lamenting that "the Negro is still languished in the corners
of American society." Also, keep in mind that the speech was delivered
during a march in Washington that was dubbed "The March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom." Just after the first two lines it's clear that
this song closely parallels King's speech while bringing attention to
the frightening fact that the reverend's words accurately reflect the current state of things as well.

Cashing checks? They put us in our so called place:

the graves

early,

concerning justice: it's all fake

Bankrupt and corrupt: that’s justice’s bank

"We've
come to our nation's capital to cash a check" King states. For the
modern American black man though, that check is still not paid and they
are instead put in check, put in the graves at an early age or
incarcerated by a twisted system of justice. Maintaining the bank
metaphor, "justice's bank" is bankrupt both literally (with the American
economy crumpled by the corruption of it's own big banks) and
figuratively (as in the "the bank of justice" with its "vaults of
opportunity" mentioned by Dr. King).

Kevlaar has a similar line in another song ("Lesser Sorrows" off the Unbutton Your Holsters mixtape): "Justice is counterfeit/ I'm the money power spent/ wrestling weakness."

The urgency of now is just time we’ll have to take

Steal, not borrow

MLK
emphasizes "the fierce urgency of now" and Kevlaar turns this into a
clever play on words. "Steal, not borrow": meaning we must grasp and
snatch this very moment and not be gradual about it (MLK decries the
"tranquilizing drug of gradualism"). This line is also saying that we
must NOT live on so-called "borrowed time" a phrase referring
to a period time when the outcome of something is avoided or uncertain.
A great, very heavy line when the full range of meanings is taken into
consideration.

Sunlit the path of sorrow

I stand on hallowed land, clutching my brother's arrows

You
will notice now that as the song proceeds the meanings seem to get
deeper. We have to consider this couplet as a whole because, as is often
the case with Wisemen lyrics, there is here a lyrical harmony---a
relationship between each part and of all parts to the whole.
First,
the "sunlit path" is an image in Dr. King's speech: "the sunlit path of
racial justice." For King, this is a beacon of light shed upon a
community that his been in the "shadows" we mentioned earlier, the
"shadows of history's gallows" as K7 says in another track on the album.
Also, King stands at a "hallowed spot" and champions universal
brotherhood and equality.

There's another reference in here
though. The same people that enslaved black men in America also murdered
the Native Americans and kicked them out of their revered land. Kevlaar
is shedding light on another "path of sorrow": the Trail of Tears.
This is the Native American's land and they worship the land itself
(thus it is "hallowed" or rendered holy). Standing upon this land
"clutching my brother's arrows" means standing with the usurped Natives
and uniting with them as brothers.

Universal brotherhood is
really the essence of what the United States has, from the very
beginning, claimed to be all about and in that last line we also
envision the American symbol of the bald eagle clutching thirteen arrows
in its talon.

On quicksand we stand, all of us, God’s children

Brotherhood forgotten like the World Trade buildings

One
of the most powerful lines in a very powerful song. This "hallowed
land" Kevlaar stands on in America is also sinking, deteriorating into a
historically decrepit state. MLK strove to "lift our nation from the
quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood" so as
to unite "all of God's children."

This brotherhood, this uniting
spirit, was undoubtedly most prevalent during the time immediately after the 9/11
World Trade Center collapse. As the absence of those once
magnificent twin towers and the mysterious/enigmatic/frightening facts concerning their destruction testify to, that brotherhood feeling quickly faded. It was practically an illusion. That united feeling of American brotherhood was played
upon
just long enough to rouse the nation into entering endless unjust wars
against a nebulous unidentifiable enemy ("War on Terror") while also
surrendering personal freedoms/privacies via the Patriot
Act (and subsequent measures like the NDAA). There is no feeling of brotherhood
when an alarming racial tension and discrimination persists today, with an increasingly militant police force becoming increasingly brutal.

It’s fatal to overlook this moment,

praying, I loop the omen

Sweltering brutality

ignorance overwhelming

The
first line here is almost a direct quote from the MLK speech: "It would
be fatal to overlook the urgency of the moment." King's metaphor of the
"sweltering summer" is also referenced here. The looped omen is the
spinning record, the loop of the beat over which Kevlaar is actually in a
way, praying and hoping as
well as sharing a dream for the future. (The word "loop" also connects
with MLK's "whirlwinds of revolt" in the same paragraph.)

"Ignorance
overwhelming" is one of those simple lines that says so much. Its many
meanings are so obvious that I won't bother stating them but I will
point out that it ties in to the line above about forgetting the World
Trade buildings. Forgetting, ignoring, neglecting the alarming questions behind such a humongous event---this
is due to the overwhelming stream of ignorance and BULLSHIT being
constantly firehosed at people's senses.

We can’t afford to dream, take swings on the enemy

You seen the Oscar Grant tragedy? How is tranquility?

"We
can't afford to dream" has a couple distinct meanings. First, it's a
simpler way of saying "we can't afford to relax and take it easy" or "to
sleep" which connects with MLK saying that the Negro cannot rest and be
content with any minor advancements of their cause while "the nation
returns to business as usual." The second meaning is one similar to
Bronze Nazareth's line in the album's title track:
"Handcuffed to dreams we can't get." There is a so-called "dream" that
is prevalent in the black community and that is one of obscene material
wealth, MTV Cribs style, and it is a dream that 99% of them cannot
achieve or "afford." Why? Because the reality is that black men in America are "put
in their place," as we already observed in the first line---either killed or
handcuffed.

Or, in Oscar Grant's case, BOTH. Dr. King says that
there will be "neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro
is granted his citizenship rights." There is a sad but poignant pun
between King's use of the word "grant" and Kevlaar's calling to mind the
Oscar Grant's tragedy. Surely, "citizenship rights" include the right
to a fair trial and the basic protection against being fatally shot by a
police officer when laying face down and in handcuffs. This image is
why Kevlaar (and MLK before him) is desperately evoking action in the line "take swings on the enemy."

(The
first line could also be interpreted as "Can't afford to take swings on
the enemy" because, if they're willing to shoot someone putting up a
resistance as futile as Oscar Grant's, they'll certainly retaliate
violently to swings. This pacifistic interpretation would also fit into
MLK's virtue of non-violent resistance.)

Conflict isn’t wrongful when history always scorned you

They never warned you

not to satisfy your thirst

By
now the reader will recognize the impressive feat by the artist of not
only matching the imagery and message of Dr. King's speech, but even
closely following the chronological order of it (and making it all sound
good, no less!). At this point in the MLK speech the focus is
upon the conflict and King warns that we must be wary of engaging
in "wrongful deeds" and satisfying a "thirst for freedom" by "drinking
from the cup of bitterness and hatred."

We're approaching one of
the peaks of the song (it's truly a musical mountain range with a number
of high points) and Kevlaar is directly transforming the powerful
language of King's speech into lyrics; rhymes that communicate the
message in a musical flow.

Sipping from cups of hatred it may be worth the birth

of disciplined disciples, splendid heights we must rise to

When
warning against satisfying the thirst for freedom by sipping from cups
of bitterness, hatred, physical violence, MLK announces that we must
"rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul
force." This is Kevlaar calling for the ascension of truly disciplined
disciples, those who can match the violent oppressive forces with a
force of will, leading perfectly into this next line:

Marvelous new militants, requisites we subscribe to

It’s a new day, we can’t walk alone, survival

MLK
praises the "marvelous new militancy" that had arisen among the black
community in the 60s and Kevlaar flawlessly connects it all together.
The "disciplined disciples" Kevlaar calls for shall "subscribe" to the
requisites of, as we just said, matching up against physical force with a
disciplined "soul force" but also now King clarifies that there mustn't
be an overall distrust of, or disconnect from all white people. "For
many of our white brothers...have come to realize that their destiny is
tied up with our destiny...that their freedom is inextricably bound to
our freedom."

Next, there is a parallel to King's line "We cannot
walk alone" a very important aspect of the speech and something that is
absolutely necessary for the survival and triumph of the cause: UNITY.

Never one to conform, what’ll it take to satisfy you?

A victim of the rivals they’ve held rifles to our eyes full

of tears, until justice rolls downhill as water

At
this point in the song, the passion and emotion is starting to reach
it's highest level as we will see soon while, in the speech, Dr. King
brings up the problem of police brutality. This problem is still rampant
in our country and is one of the main themes of the albumWho Got the Camera?

Kevlaar
asks the same question MLK rhetorically asks when he recalls the
question often posed to civil rights devotees: "When will you be
satisfied?" King responds that they will never be satisfied "as long as
the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality."
Considering that, almost 50 years later, police brutality is still such an enormous problem, Kevlaar is drawn to paint an image of the
"unspeakable horrors" before echoing the line from the Book of Amos
(5:24) used in King's address: "justice rolls down like waters, and
righteousness like a mighty steam" which of course amplifies the lyrical image of streaming tears.

Our mothers and fathers marched for years

My Father, unmindful, fresh from narrow jail cells

It's
almost exactly 50 years since King's speech. Our mothers and fathers have
marched over that time on a "quest for freedom" as King says and yet, as
we stand, conditions are still so deplorable.

Kevlaar calls to mind
the struggles of his own father, a black man living through the 60s,
"unmindful" (a word used by MLK in the corresponding paragraph) and
having come into this quest for freedom "fresh from narrow jail cells," a
direct quote from the speech.

STORMS OF PERSECUTION SHOULD SPARK

SWARMS OF REVOLUTION

These
are possibly the strongest words on the whole track, the anthem of the
song, the unifying chant. As I've said, this song is like a series of
mountain peaks along a range. I identify about 4 or 5 peaks which, in a
song with no chorus, serve almost as refrains. At the very least they
are distinctive messages, aphorisms that could easily be taken out of
the song and etched into a statue.

This one is most striking
especially considering the current swarm of revolutions around the
globe, all of which sprung up around the exact same time this song was
released. This kind of ESP exemplifies Ezra Pound's famous quote about
the social importance of the artist: "The artist is the antenna of the
race, the barometer and voltmeter."

The above line is a timeless energy being expressed. A
perfect example of Kevlaar creatively using a phrase from King's speech
("storms of persecution") and transforming it into perfect poetry.

Veterans of creative suffering

The Mainstream is bubbling,

showing zero substance, I’ve had enough and

passion’s doubling

The
first line here is taken from King's speech and then applied
specifically to the decrepit state of hip hop (and, really, the
"mainstream" of everything nowadays because the main stream has
undoubtedly been polluted in almost every sector of society and
culture).

The main STREAM is bubbling; it's polluted,
disgusting. The rap music that is prevalent and thrust upon people has
"zero substance." For the true hip hop ARTISTS (and if you've made it
this far along, you've surely been convinced of pure hip hop's artistic
potential) it's unbearable to watch as the true passion for the music is
"doubling" or keeling over and dying. "Passion's doubling" also means
that he's had enough of this shit and the anger and passion is growing
to unbearable levels.

Stumbling in the valley of anguish

Hungry for dreams, in fact WE FAMISHED

Deep rooted, examining antics

Just
as MLK's speech is about to reach its most prominent point, we have
here a strong stanza led off by an awe-inspiring visual. Where King
beseeches us to "not wallow in the valley of despair," half a century
later, Kevlaar bears the pain of an entire community, stumbling
"famished" through "the valley of anguish." This hunger for dreams, for
"the American dream," is deep-rooted---Dr. King states that what he
envisions is "deeply rooted in the American dream."

All this
time, through this famished "quest for freedom" they've been examining
the "antics" or heinous actions of the same oppressors.

I have a dream today

THAT THE DEVIL VANISHED

Re-plant this in our handbooks

TEACH OUR CHILDREN THE ANSWERS

This
is the modern dream. Dr. King in his speech describes numerous examples
of his own dream but this one piece of verse embodies it all perfectly.

"The
Devil" is a name we are all familiar with and, upon consideration, the
modern atmosphere in which we live has certainly proved his proverbial
presence. Malcolm X defended his frequent use of the title "white devil"
saying that it does not mean all white people are devils; the term
refers not to ALL white people as a whole but those in modern history
who've scoured the globe with devilish, destructive, separatist
behavior (i.e. divide & conquer). I don't think there is any doubt that this behavior persists
today. Dr. King's dream was one of unity among
all races and cultures, rising our nation up to the creed ("all men are
created equal") it set for itself at the beginning. Kevlaar's is the
same, spoken differently---a dream that everything the Devil stands for
"vanished." Beautiful, ain't it?

The last two lines remind me of
the Buddha's message that enlightenment itself cannot be taught, only
the PATH to enlightenment and that's an important factor. So we have to
"re-plant" the dream of universal brotherhood and unity into books for
the future generations, so that they can continue this movement
towards creating a new world. This theme of passing wisdom down to
posterity connects with the final lines of the song.

(Also, the use of the word "handbook" here reminds me of the Latin term vade mecum often used to describe an important manual. "Vade mecum"
translates to "go with me" or "follow me" and this is exactly what's
being presented in the song. A manual of "answers" for the future
generations.)

I have a dream today the exalted show they faces

Traces of they voice revealing the truth

And when these dreams are born

How long will they mourn? we traveled through the storm

The gavel will come down and we’ll be judged for the crown

Another generation gone, satisfaction at the gates

It’s war, you’ve been warned, I just supplied the arms…

A
climactic ending and one which serves to distinguish the song from
MLK's speech. The image presented here is one of battling courageously
through the "storms of persecution" so that, eventually, maybe even a
few generations down the road, "these dreams are born."

We have
an epic, grandiose ending as we come upon the gates of a final judgment
and the whole "quest for freedom" seems to be a recurring cycle that
each generation must battle through; the passing generations bestowing
the warnings, wisdom and weapons upon the next batch of freedom fighters
for the battle that will inevitably ensue.

1 comment:

One thing that is pretty tangential that I'd say about human nature is that the way the country and the world opened after 9/11 is the kind of event that seems to be ephemeral by its nature. I remember that after the big earthquake in Santa Cruz in 1989 that everything stopped and then started again in a way that seemed positive and new. It didn't last. Once the prospect of normality arose again, everyone reached for it. I think it's understandable, because dealing with the new and unknown is very difficult and can only be done in spurts--I won't say 'gradually'. But I feel privileged to have been given a glimpse of another way of being in those post earthquake days. Don't know what to make of it exactly, but I'm glad to have witnessed them.

About Me

A 29-year-old native of Staten Island, New York, departed for the sunny shores of San Diego in 2008, bounced over to Austin, TX in 2011. Food-for-thought glutton, Baseball fanatic, Hip Hop head, James Joyce enthusiast. "A Building Roam" is my vehicle for writing about all of that plus much more. Any comments, suggestions, or feedback of any kind is appreciated. You can email me HERE.